A History Of Costumes: Vintage Halloween Photos

the global culture we also dress up as someone else for certain occasion. This goes for almost every culture and every space in any time. The people who lived in African tribes used to wear masks for certain rituals, while others wore masks on holidays.

Wearing a mask is something embedded in the human spirit. It’s context is wide and somewhat unclear. By wearing a mask, you become someone else. In ancient times, it was a normal thing to wear a mask when you wanted to do something or take on a role. To give you an example, certain groups used to wear masks or paint their bodies (another form of the same concept) when they would go to war. This way, the war spirits would take over their bodies, or better said, they would become these war spirits and their victory was easier to obtain. In a way we can say that this is associated with unexpressed guilt, since it was acceptable to do certain things while wearing a mask that were otherwise unacceptable. But we can’t dig too deep into this, since we can’t exactly know how people thought in those days.

Halloween is one of the most known and celebrated costume-related holidays in the Western world today. It’s not similar to other holidays where people dress up such as the Italian carnival or the Jewish holiday of Purim.

An ancient turnip lantern found in Ireland

Halloween is a rather somber holiday. It originated in the old Celtic civilization (today’s Ireland and Scotland),even though it seems that it’s actual origin was in the Bronze Age. The Celts would call it Samhain (pronounced sah-win). At that time, October 31st marked the end of the old year; the end of the summer and the death of the sun; hence the whole death-element that Halloween has attached to it. In short, it was believed that people could actually come into contact with the spirits of the other world in this night. The holiday itself derived many legends and customs, the most known is of course the Jack O’Lantern pumpkin, which originated in the custom of farmers putting candles in turnips to light their way home from the land they worked. Many years later, when the immigrants came to America, they kept the custom, just that they used pumpkins.

Let’s come back to the dressing up part of it though. It appears that the custom of dressing up appeared in the Middle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing. By the way, an alternate name for Halloween is All Hallows’ Eve or Hallowmas (resembling the name Christmas). However, it was only in the late 1800s when people started throwing costume parties.

The tradition of trick-or-treat-ing appeared as we know it in the 1930s, when, because of many violent happenings on the night of Halloween, the American authorities decided to transform the holiday into a kid’s holiday. However, the custom has it’s origins in the late medieval concept of “souling”. Souling means that a poor person would go from door to door on Hallowmas (November 1st) to ask for food. That person was given food in the return of his prayers on All Souls Day (November 2nd). Of course, there is a big Christian, especially Catholic influence there, which mixed the old pagan holiday with the Celtic New Year, the holiday of the dead and All Saints’ Day.

It’s really hard to actually trace the history and concept of Halloween without having to constantly go back and forth, since traditions, concepts and ideas seem to overlap. They are all tight up to each other in a way. Souling became trick-or-trat-ing, now done by kids in costumes. According to several sources, people used to dress up on Halloween to scare the bad spirits away or to please them. It is kind of complicated to understand this: did they want to scare them or to please them? Probably both, but at different times in history. It would make sense if we agree that the people of the past thought this night was a gateway to another world, and that they would do anything to avoid creatures from another world, by either scaring them away (although if you wish to scare a ghost away, why dress like one?) or to make them think you’re one of them. Just imagine what this would have been like. There are very few documents to speak about Halloween from the past.

The oral character of Halloween makes it hard for us today to make clear sense of it. As you can see, there are so many things mixed here that it’s hard to see what the motivations behind it are. And what’s interesting about it is that Halloween keeps changing and becoming more and more of an International holiday, popularized by US, British and Canadian media outlets.
We’ve put together a collection of vintage Halloween photos, and they seem really weird and different from what Halloween looks like today! Also, the fact that we associate this kind of pictures with film noir and other such forms makes them even more weirder. You can see from witches to unclear costumes, and what you can feel is that even though these photos were taken about 100 years ago or so, even in those days people would see Halloween differently than how we do today.

It remains to be seen where Halloween is heading in the future, but one thing is for sure: it’s a more complicated holiday than we think and it’s really the expression of our history and the way we changed and evolved from ancient times to the modern era.

Fraquoh and Franchomme

P.S. What do you think of Halloween? Is it celebrated where you live? Share your feedback, questions or thoughts in the comments below! For more articles on style, fashion tips and cultural insights, you can subscribe to Attire Club via e-mail or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!

I once painted my face like a creepy puppet doll and scared myself in the mirror, and once dressed as Hannibal Lecter. That’s about it 😀 but if I had such costumes, I’d probably dress up. I do have a question: I can’t manage to share this post on twitter, do you know of any site bug? Might just be my internet connection, but I wanted to let you know, just in case it’s a problem.

Get style guides and fashion inspirationin your inbox

Subscribe to our mailing list and get great articles that will provide you with all the tools you need to develop your style in your email inbox. Once you have subscribed, you can claim you free e-book!

ARCHIVES

ARCHIVES

INSIDE ATTIRE CLUB

INSIDE ATTIRE CLUB

DONATING = LOVING

Bringing you Attire Club for free takes hundreds of hours each month. If you find useful information and stimulation here, we would appreciate a donation of your choosing that will allow us to continue to expand and enhance our concept.

Why Attire Club is Unique

Attire Club is the ultimate resource for complete style guides, fashion inspiration and cultural insights that provide you with the tools you need for a continuous style development. Geared towards the sharp modern man, Attire Club offers practical "you can do it, here's how" articles that will make you not only look better, but also feel better and more confident. With a groundbreaking new concept, AC is the essential online publication that brings out the best in who you are. The insights provided by our library of over 900 articles can be applied regardless of your style, age or budget. All it takes is a desire to be stylish. From basic fashion tips to sophisticated style advice, Attire Club is the companion that offers you the tools you need to continuously develop your style! We believe that your attitude is just as important as the clothes you wear, which is why we also focus on the way other arts and music in particular can enhance your mood and dig deep in the minds of today’s style movers and shakers. Our InCompany by Attire Club magazine is a quarterly publication that highlights everything you don’t get to see anywhere else: inspiring photography, compelling interviews and thought-provoking cultural insights.

Search…

Search for:

Categories

Categories

ARCHIVES

ARCHIVES

Our Websites

Donating = Loving

Bringing you Attire Club for free takes hundreds of hours each month. If you find useful information and stimulation here, we would appreciate a donation of your choosing that will allow us to continue to expand and enhance our concept.